B. Snyder's Note That J-M Mailed Its Fiber-Handling Safety Leaflet to All Customers, with Two Editions of the Leaflet (1972)

A ten-page Johns-Manville file. It opens with a handwritten note addressed "Dick Carter - Denver," signed B. Snyder and dated 2/29/72, stamped received March 1, 1972: "These were mailed to all of our customers." Two editions of J-M's leaflet "Recommended Safety Practices for Handling Asbestos Fiber" follow: an earlier one with eleven numbered rules and J-M's New York address (form PRF-14), and a later one arranged under headings, from J-M's Denver headquarters, that refers readers to the Asbestos Information Association/North America (form EA-11P-3711). The last page is a Johns-Manville Sales Corporation notice card, "Dear Johns-Manville Employee," telling workers to "Wear a respirator when any such dust is present!"

What it shows

The leaflets tell those who unloaded, stored and used J-M's raw fiber to handle the bags so as to prevent dust, to vacuum or wet down spills, and to wear approved respirators wherever dust "cannot be kept within the Threshold Limit Value." Neither edition names any disease. A month later J-M's export fiber manager told a colleague that this leaflet had been distributed "very widely" to international customers and that a copy had gone to Mr. Carter (Poutiatine to McKinney, March 1972). The employee card speaks of materials that "display warning labels concerning the possible health hazards of breathing in excessive quantities of dust" and says the respirators "have been purchased for you!"

About this copy

The later edition (pages 6 to 9) is the one the Library already shows among the enclosures to Walter Cooper's 1977 history of J-M's employee education. The note carries the litigation stamp "Produced JM-83."